Concrete castings, as well a plaster castings reinforced with glass fiber, have become a quick and economical way of constructing hollow columns to surround structural beams, poles or the like. Conventionally, the castings are semicylindrical in shape and are connected together and stacked to form a column which houses the structural member.
The difficulties present in conventional construction utilizing such castings, is in forming a column which has all of the castings perfectly aligned. Such alignment is necessary so that when spackle or other filler material is applied to cover seams and cracks, the finished appearance of the column is a single integral unit. This alignment of one or more castings not only requires large amounts of finishing materials, but also detracts from the integral finished appearance of the structure.
One method currently utilized to connect a pair of semicylindrical castings is to utilize a channel member having one half mounted to each edge of the castings. The screws which are inserted through the casting into the channel member are then covered with a finishing spackle to finish the appearance of the entire unit. However, such a method is difficult to install at the site, and therefore requires extensive labor and time to construct.
Furthermore, conventional methods for connecting the castings required skilled labor to align the castings and connect them in proper alignment.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for connecting castings.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for connecting castings which is quick and simple to utilize so as to avoid the necessity of skilled labor.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for connecting castings which will automatically align the castings upon tightening of the connector apparatus.
Yet another object is to provide a method and apparatus for connecting castings which utilizes simple and economical parts and may be quickly assembled.
These and other objects of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.